Pete Rose Poll

[Topps206]

Originally Posted by BleedinBlue

While I agree Simpson was a hall of famer as a player I do not believe that he would have been inducted if the timing had been different. The NFL would never have allowed itself to honor somebody guilty of such an act. Regardless of qualifications.

If so then the Hall of Fame would be hypocrites since they are supposed to judge purely on on field accomplishments and not what happened off of it. If all of it happened when he was up for election, I'd have voted for O.J., though very begrudgingly. I hope he spends the rest of life behind bars.

[Touch'EmAll]

You know, it is the Hall of "FAME". As a player was Pete Rose famous? Seems ok with me for him to be banned for life for anything participatory baseball related. But you cannot deny he was ways more famous than a whole lot of players already in.

Same goes for Joe J. and Bo Jackson - both Famous in the truest sense of the word.

I would like to see all of them in the hall - because they are a part of significant baseball history.

And for them along with the steroid crowd, well, thats what asterisks are for.

[pbspelly]

It really amazes me that they are keeping him out on "character" grounds from breaking a rule that is designed as a trip-wire. Gambling itself is not deemed harmful to the game unless it affects the game. The fear is that if gambling is allowed, it will lead to players and managers throwing games or cheating, as we saw in the early days of the 20th century. So players and managers are prohibited from gambling in order to ensure that they don't go that one step farther and harm the game.

No one, to my knowledge, has ever accused Pete Rose of cheating or throwing games. At most, he is guilty of using insider information that he gleaned as a player and manager to gain an unfair advantage in his betting. He was not gaining an unfair advantage against his baseball opponents, just against bookies and his gambling opponents. The bookies ought to be the ones upset. They ought to ban him from the gambling Hall of Fame. His only harm to the game of baseball was that he broke a rule and set a poor example to little kids. That may be reason not to admire or emulate him, but not to keep him out of the Hall of Fame.